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Anki Tutorial

One of the things we'd like to do in Edubuntu in 2012 is showcase more of the software that we ship and tell stories of people who use it.

We stumbled upon a great write-up of Anki, a flashcard reader program installed in Edubuntu and otherwise available via Ubuntu Software Center.

Here's a snippet:

"Prepping for a Linux certification exam? Helping the kids with schoolwork? No matter what the subject is, Anki can help you commit it to memory. The flexible open source study system is based around the flashcard concept, but with support for audio, video, and more, and the program can adapt to your learning style."

WebLive Milestone

Yesterday, the Edubuntu WebLive service surpassed it's one hundred thousandth session. We're thrilled that so many people have taken the time to look at Edubuntu and find out just how easy open source software is and that it can be really valuable in an educational setting.

Try it out!

Haven't tried out WebLive yet? Give it a go! WebLive itself is also open source, if you'd like to deploy your own instance, you can find it hosted on Launchpad.net.

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What's new?

This beta release brings no new features, but adds many bug fixes in preperation for the final release.

For more information on this Beta release, including non-Edubuntu specific bugs and features, please refer to the Natty Narwhal Technical Overview wiki page. We strongly recommend reading this, since there are issues which aren't resolved yet and may require workarounds on certain platforms.

The Final release is on 28 April and we hope that you'll be as excited about it as we are!

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Release Notes

WebLive is now directly integrated in the Ubuntu Software Center
letting you test the most popular apps without installing them on your
machine. Just click the "Test drive" button.

Ubiquity now has an additional step allowing users to fine-tune which
applications should be installed on the final system.

Edubuntu now ships with Arkose, which provides application sandboxing
for downloaded apps.

New software packages in Edubuntu include Pencil, Geogebra, Calibre,
LibreCAD, Freemind and Stellarium.

Theming improvements include a new LDM theme when installing LTSP from
the Edubuntu installer. The text-mode boot mode now displays "Edubuntu"
instead of "Ubuntu". Our ongoing menu refinements include new icons
where they were missing, and more consistent case use in menu entries.

Edubuntu 11.04 ships with the classical Gnome desktop by default but
Unity is available as an option in the installer.

For more information on this Beta release, including non-Edubuntu specific bugs and features, please refer to the Natty Narwhal Technical Overview wiki page. We strongly recommend reading this, since there are may be bugs that may result in data loss under certain circumstances.

Edubuntu follows the Ubuntu release schedule, for more information on the roadmap to release, please refer to the Release Schedule.

What is Schooltool?

SchoolTool is a suite of free administrative software for schools. Since it can be installed easily and used with no licensing fees, SchoolTool can be used by schools for a single purpose, by individual teachers or small teams within schools, or as a whole-school comprehensive student information system, encompassing demographics, gradebooks, attendance, calendars and reporting.

Schooltool and Edubuntu

In 2005 when Edubuntu was first released, it shipped with Schooltool installed by default. For a few releases, Schooltool wasn't available in the Ubuntu archives due to many of its dependencies being unavailable.

A collaborative effort that spans the SchoolTool itself, Zope maintainers, Ubuntu MOTU, Edubuntu and Ubuntu-NGO over the last 2 releases paid off and now Schooltool is back in the Ubuntu archives. Users who are testing the upcoming 11.04 release will already be able to install it.

SchoolTool won't be installed in Edubuntu by default, but it will be just a few clicks away via the Ubuntu Software Center.

WebLive Progress

In October 2010 we launched a new Edubuntu service called WebLive. This allowed users to connect to an Edubuntu session with nothing more than a java-enabled web browser for up to 2 hours. Users are allowed to renew their session and get another 2 hours if they would like to try it out further.

Since then, it's been extended to not only support the current Edubuntu stable release, but also the development version of Edubuntu and Ubuntu with the top rated applications from the Ubuntu Software Center pre-installed.

This provides potential users a great opportunity to try out Edubuntu and see what great software is available in Ubuntu- before they even download it.

Service Usage

Today, we hit 15 000 sessions since we started logging the amount of sessions in November. We've had great feedback so far and would appreciate some more.

We also had one user who has been logging into the WebLive service almost every day since we've made it available! We don't collect e-mail addresses and don't log anything else than username and when the person has logged on, so if that person would like to give us some feedback we'd love to talk to you!

Give it a Try!

For performance reasons, and because of limited server availability, we only allow 10 simultaneous connections. If the server is currently full, then please try again later.

New Development Release

Edubuntu 11.04 (codenamed: Natty Narwhal) is the next version of Edubuntu due for release in April 2011. Development on the system is in full swing and today marks the third tested installable development version. It is still in an early state and has known problems, it is not recommended for anything else than testing and experimental purposes for people who are interested in Edubuntu development.

For more information on this Alpha release, including non-Edubuntu specific bugs and features, please refer to the Natty Narwhal Technical Overview wiki page. We strongly recommend reading this, since there are may be bugs that may result in data loss under certain circumstances.

Edubuntu follows the Ubuntu release schedule, for more information on the roadmap to release, please refer to the Release Schedule.

Small Bugs are Important Too

Bugs may sound cute and harmless, but often even small software bugs can have a huge impact on the overall user experience.

The current development version of Edubuntu, codenamed "Natty Narwhal" which will in time become Edubuntu 11.04 is shaping up quite well. However, quite often attention is focussed on the big issues and sometimes the smaller problems just don't get the attention they also deserve, which results in feedback like "Hey! Why didn't you fix this, it would've only taken you 15 minutes!".

So, to give special love and attention to all Edubuntu bugs, we're declaring 10 March an Edubuntu Bug day!

The Details

The plan is to take a look at all related open bugs, do as much triaging and fixing as possible and then put together a report at the end of the day and identify and prioritise remaining issues targeted for the final release.

If you're new to bug squashing (or even scared of them) we still encourage you to drop by on IRC and say hi! You're even welcome to join as and nag us about your favourite bugs.

New Development Release

Edubuntu 11.04 (codenamed: Natty Narwhal) is the next version of Edubuntu due for release in April 2011. Development on the system is in full swing and today marks the second tested installable development version. It is still in a very early state and has known problems, it is not recommended for anything else than testing and experimental purposes for people who are interested in Edubuntu development.

LTSP won't work due to a nbd-client issue and a gnome-session issue. A workaround exists by removing /opt/ltsp//usr/share/ldm/rc.d/I01-nbd-update from the chroot and running "sudo ltsp-update-image". Once that's done, make sure to always select "Classic Desktop" as session type or login will fail. (LP: #711951)

The Unity session in Edubuntu is still work in progress, it's recommended to test using the Ubuntu Classic Desktop from the login screen instead.

The Installer slideshow still shows that Edubuntu 10.10 is being installed, this has no impact on the installed system and the slideshow will be updated for the next alpha release

Edubuntu is currently reviewing package selections, some packages installed in this release will not be in the final release.

For more information on this Alpha release, including non-Edubuntu specific bugs and features, please refer to the Natty Narwhal Technical Overview wiki page. We strongly recommend reading this, since there are bugs that will result in data loss under certain circumstances.

Edubuntu follows the Ubuntu release schedule, for more information on the roadmap to release, please refer to the Release Schedule.